


THE GREAT INCEST DEBATE: Are the Lutece Twins Doing the Frick-Frack or What?

by INMH



Series: trope-bingo Fanfiction Fills 2017 (2nd Quarter) [17]
Category: BioShock, BioShock Infinite
Genre: Analysis, Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea, F/M, Incest, Meta, Mild Sexual Content, Other, Pseudo-Incest, Sibling Incest, Spoilers, Strong Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 11:17:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11943042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH
Summary: An analysis of the evidence regarding the alleged (pseudo)incestuous relationship between the Lutece Twins in BioShock: Infinite.





	THE GREAT INCEST DEBATE: Are the Lutece Twins Doing the Frick-Frack or What?

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER:
> 
> I, INMH, being of (…somewhat) sound mind and body, do declare that as I type this analysis on August 29th 2017, I am unaware of any Word of God statements regarding the Lutece Twins or their alleged sexual behavior. If I have missed any such Word of God statements, please inform me. 
> 
> If I have not, and Word of God says in 2018 that they did or did not do the frick-frack, please do not inundate me with screeching messages of “OMG YOU’RE SO STUUUUUPID” because trust me, I’LL KNOW.
> 
> Furthermore, I have absolutely zero intentions of bashing or debunking anyone’s ships. I have not a single fuck to give who you ship who with. Hell, I even ship the Lutece Twins a bit, so please do not come at me screaming about how I’m trashing your OTP. I’m not- I’m simply discussing what information is available to us canonically and analyzing it to see which option is best supported (or not) by canon. 
> 
> In a similar vein, if you do not ship the Lutece twins for whatever reason, could you please refrain from bashing the ship in the comments? It's unnecessary and you will be accomplishing nothing by going "eeeeewwww! Lutecest!" in the comments. If the pairing offends you then please make use of the back-button, because I will tolerate no ship-bashing or ship-war bullshit in the comments, so don't even bother going there.
> 
> (And also because this is my analysis, anonymous commenting is off and if you’re still compelled to be a complete dick about it I can and will remove your comment.)

 

_**THE GREAT INCEST DEBATE:** _ **Are the Lutece Twins Doing the Frick-Frack or What?**

 

* * *

**THESIS**  
  
I am _curious._  
  
As are many of you, I’m sure.  
  
If you’ve been in the BioShock: Infinite fandom for at least a week or two’s worth of time, you’ve probably at least heard murmurs about the rumors regarding the nature of Robert and Rosalind Lutece’s relationship. Namely, whether or not their relationship is familial, or more… “ _carnal_ ”, as Rosalind put it.  
  
And there has been evidence to support and negate both sides that have cropped up here and there, much of it stuff you can witness for yourself in the games (Burial at Sea has a particular audio diary worth listening to if you’re in the pro-camp, the text of which I’ll be listing here.) It all leads to the very interesting possibility of the Lutece Twins sharing a (sorta kinda) incestuous relationship.  
  
And now, without further ado, I present to you the major points of evidence and consideration in the game.

* * *

 

 **THE BED**  
  
Let’s start with the Lutece household:  
  
The primary bit of evidence we receive from the Lutece household/laboratory during your stroll through Columbia is the bed on the upper floor. It has been cited as both serious evidence and as a joke/aneurysm-fuel for those in the fandom who don’t seriously believe (or necessarily care) that the Lutece Twins might be a little closer than we realized on our first play-through. And as most of the evidence I bring forth here, it provides arguments both for and against an incestuous relationship between the twins.  
  
**PRO**  
  
Well, first off, it’s one bed: A double-wide bed, at that. And it is the only bedroom in the house that we see/have access to, which means that the developers could be subtly hinting at a romantic relationship between the two. After all, when perusing a house belonging to twins, it’s a little surprising that one only has access to _one_ of their bedrooms, right? Unless, of course, there is only _one_ bedroom.  
  
Also worthy of note: There are very few personal effects in the room, and none of them are necessarily indicative of the gender of the occupant.  
  
**CON**  
  
However, it is worth noting that when you go upstairs and into the bedroom, there are one or two other doors up there that you can’t open- and that means there could, very easily, be a second bedroom hidden behind them. It’s also worth mentioning that, originally, it was only Rosalind living in this house: Remember the kinetoscope with the video announcing Robert’s arrival to Columbia? Rosalind had already taken up residence there (indeed, she pulled Robert through the tear into her living-room).  
  
And if you think about it, as far as the twins go, it’s really all about Rosalind in the game, isn’t it? Robert is the one who came to _her_ version of Columbia. We never hear a voxophone recording from Robert’s perspective, we never read anything that can definitively, solely be attributed to him, never see any personal items that can definitively be proven as his, and the only time we see him alone is in Booker’s flashbacks to the night he gave Anna to Robert (and even then, it’s the old ‘give us the girl and wipe away the debt’ bit).  
  
So really, when you think about it, would it really be _so_ surprising if we’re only seeing one bedroom? Because I would wager that that one room could be Rosalind’s, given that she’s the twin we’ve see the most of. Of course, once again, we can’t necessarily tell the gender of the room’s occupant(s), so we can’t be sure.  
  
One other small point I’ll bring up before moving on: Technically, the Lutece house isn’t just a house, it’s a _laboratory._ It rests on a street in Columbia along with other shops and businesses, and there is some reasonable expectation that they would get visitors or other people poking around (given their notoriety). Would it necessarily be _prudent_ to have only one bedroom? After all, Columbia’s not exactly the most, erm… _Welcoming_ place, towards non-traditional relationships? And this is 1912. I would think it’d be a bit risky to have only one bedroom in your house of two people, just in case someone happens to come in and notice and start asking questions.  
  
(Of course, we could also argue that there wouldn’t be any reason for anyone to go upstairs, but again, something to consider.)

* * *

 **ROSALIND’S AUDIO DIARIES**  
  
As mentioned before, Rosalind is the one responsible for all of the voxophone entries relating to the twins in the game. Robert never makes one, and so it’s Rosalind’s perspective that we must rely on for background information about them both.  
  
I’ve copied the texts of the relevant ones (and only the ones relevant to Rosalind and Robert’s relationship, because not all of them are) here, with specific parts bolded:  
  
“When I finally brought my brother through, he seemed to lack the capacity to square his own reality with this one. I suspected such a thing would happen, yet had no means to accommodate his distress. His behavior was that of the feebleminded. He hemorrhaged nearly continuously from his nose. **Naturally, I was able to transfuse him from my own veins and thus avoid catastrophe. In the end, it was music that proved therapeutic and grounded his thoughts. A middle C vibrates at 262 Hz, no matter what the universe.** ” October the 10th, 1893  
  
“Brother, what Comstock failed to understand is that our contraption is a window not into prophecy, but probability. But, his money means the Lutece Field could become the Lutece Tear: A window between worlds. **A window through which you and I might finally be together.** ” October the 15th, 1893  
  
“You have been transfused, brother, into a new reality, but your body rejects the cognitive dissonance through confusion and hemorrhage. **But we are together, and I will mend you. For what separates us now, but a single chromosome?** ” October the 15th, 1893  
  
“Comstock has sabotaged our contraption. Yet, we are not dead. A theory: we are scattered amongst the possibility space **. But my brother and I are together, and so, I am content. He is not.** The business with the girl lies unresolved...But perhaps there is one who can finish it in our stead.” November the 1st, 1909  
  
“My brother has presented me with an ultimatum: If we do not send the girl back from where we brought her, he and I must part. Where he sees an empty page, I see King Lear. **But he is my brother, so I shall play my part, knowing it shall all end in tears.** ” October the 16th, 1909  
  
**PRO**  
  
As many have noted, there is a certain… _Tone_ Rosalind uses when talking about her brother in the recordings. The parts I’ve bolded in the second and third recordings specifically reference the tone she uses when speaking: It’s very soft, and has a kind of _longing_ attached to it, like she’s really sort of aching to be with Robert, and is then delighted to have him with her even though he’s not doing so well physically at that point.  
  
In the first, fourth, and fifth, I’ve highlighted the bits of text that say more than her tone does, because it gives us some insight into her frame of mind: Rosalind has a very distinct emotional attachment to Robert. She cared for him and used her blood to save him when he first came to her universe; she played the piano for him while he was sick; she didn’t give a damn that she’d been blown up in a murder-attempt because she was still with Robert; and she was willing to go on Robert’s cockamamie redemption scheme (alternatively titled ‘Let’s Fuck With Booker DeWitt Until He Cries’) solely because she didn’t want him to leave her.  
  
There is a sixth recording that appears in Burial at Sea, but, uh… I’ll get to that one. It deserves its own section.  
  
**CON**  
  
Of course, tone isn’t everything. And let’s be really, really _real_ here, my friends: It would not be the first time tone was misinterpreted from speaker to listener.  
  
It is entirely possible that Rosalind’s tone is not of a romantic nature, but perhaps intimate in a different way: After all, Rosalind has a lady-boner for science, and she’s now meeting a man who is her genderbent double from another universe. Her genderbent double who shares the same interests, passion, and perhaps most noteworthy, _intellect_ that she does. I can’t imagine it’s been easy for Rosalind to find a wealth of people who are as smart as she is, who think and feel along similar lines as she does- and here’s a guy who is _exactly that_.  
  
Intimacy does not always equate to sexuality or romance. Though popular culture would have you believe otherwise, it _is_ possible for a man and woman to have a close, intimate friendship or kinship without being sexually or romantically involved. Add to the fact that Rosalind and Robert likely view themselves as siblings to some extent and it becomes less surprising that Rosalind speaks of Robert in such a fond tone, or is so dedicated to him- they _are_ technically siblings, after all.  
  
And, to be fair, this is the same game that had a lot of people shipping Booker and Elizabeth until they learned the actual nature of their relationship (father and daughter), so it’s entirely possible that the twins’ relationship is no more romantic or sexual than theirs.

* * *

 **THE LAZARUS PROJECT**  
  
And here, my friends, we get to that tantalizing sixth audio recording that directly relates to Rosalind and Robert’s relationship- and it is a… It’s a pretty interesting one. Really makes you wish somebody would just come down and tell us whAT THE FUCK THESE TWO ARE?!  
  
“ **Our current state of being -- or lack thereof -- has left my brother... unfulfilled. The biological urge to leave one's mark is strong. And it is not an impossibility. We could instantiate ourselves back in Columbia. Return to an old life, for the possibility of creating new. But... we died in that world. Returning would mean giving up part of us. Ourselves. We'd become flesh and all that it is heir to. The mysteries of the universe would become, once again, mysteries.** ” October the 31st, 1910  
  
See? I bolded it because it’s ALL RELEVANT.  
  
**PRO**  
  
I mean… First off, we have the fact that Rosalind is willing to abandon what is basically _godhood_ for Robert, which says something pretty powerful. You also have the fact that Rosalind’s implied that she doesn’t want Robert to leave her, and starting a family with someone else would likely require _leaving_ Rosalind in a sense, yet we don’t see any anxiety in that direction. And then you have the incredibly… Fucking _delicately_ ambiguous wording that implies that she is the one that Robert wants to start the family with. Why would the subject of Robert wanting to have a family- specifically a _baby,_ since that’s what ‘leaving one’s biological mark’ most likely means- be coming out of Rosalind’s mouth unless it was DIRECTLY RELATED TO HER?  
  
**CON**  
  
And then you have the fact that, again intimacy doesn’t equal sexuality or romance. Rosalind could very well want to make such a sacrifice because he’s her brother and she would rather they be happy with some distance than miserable together. She’s probably smart enough to know that if Robert wants something that serious for his life and she goes out of her way to deny it to him then things are probably going to fester between them until the relationship rots- so she may as well give in and try to go all in on the idea, because it will preserve the relationship in the long-run.  
  
And again… Goddammit, that wording is _so fucking deliberate!_ Look at it! Whoever wrote that is fucking taunting us, y’all! The wording here is so _cautious_ , so very, very careful to ensure that we aren’t able to draw a clear conclusion either way. At no point during this paragraph are we able to pin down, with any certainty, whether or not it’s Rosalind Robert intends to start the family with, or if it’s a more general sense of him wanting to move on and start a family of his own (and possibly Rosalind starting one as well)?  
  
This paragraph is either hinting at the ship, or it’s taunting the shippers, because you _could not_ make a paragraph closer to touching on a are they/aren’t they argument than a character talking about potential babies.

* * *

 **INCEST?**  
  
And now we run into the backbone of the Rosalind/Robert ship: The _controversy._  
  
Because, you see, the Lutece twins operate in a tricky place. To the casual player who maybe didn’t pay too much attention to the details of the story, the Lutece twins are portrayed as siblings and only siblings. To the player who paid attention to detail, the Lutece twins are technically the same character, but with a potential romantic involvement that gives them incestuous subtext.  
  
The question becomes not one of ‘are they/aren’t they’, but rather, ‘did the developers actually intend to put a pair of pseudo-incestuous twins in their game’?  
  
**PRO**  
  
If the twins are romantically/sexually involved, it’s not _actually_ , technically incest.  
  
Robert and Rosalind are not actually siblings, and whether or not they _see_ themselves as siblings the way most brothers and sisters do (as opposed to, say, how Cersei and Jaime Lannister view siblinghood) is still up for some degree debate (which I am about to go into). But as far as actual, textbook-definition incest, they don’t quite fit the bill.  
  
Of course what it _actually_ is… Well, it’s quite a bit more of a clusterfuck than incest would be. In fact, incest is the simpler answer in this scenario (bet you never thought you’d read those words on paper). Technically Rosalind and Robert are genderbent versions of one another from separate universes, so really any romantic or sexual activity would be more… like… Masturbation, I guess?  
  
The point is, if it’s not technically incest, then it’s not technically a controversy.  
  
But, to be fair, even if it is incest, the Luteces would hardly be the first set of twins, or even brothers and sisters to commit incest in the media: For twins, I mentioned the Lannisters from Game of Thrones, and there’s Wanda and Pietro Maximoff from Marvel Comics; for brothers and sisters there’s the Flowers in the Attic series, the Royal Tenenbaums (HEY) and hell, even Star Wars had whiffs of it in the first two movies before we find out that Luke and Leia are twins.  
  
My point being, this would hardly be the first time a brother-sister incest couple graced a television screen, so maybe it’s not as big a deal as you might have originally thought.  
  
That being said…  
  
**CON**  
  
…It is kind of incest.  
  
I mean, on a biological level, they’re the same person. So reproduction (if they’re even capable of it, with each other or anyone else) would probably result in some… Abnormalities. I mean, I don’t really have _case-studies_ here on people having sex with their extra-dimensional clones, but for fuck’s sake, there’s probably gonna be an issue if you’re having a baby with someone that, by your own admission, is literally one chromosome away from being your identical twin.  
  
Never mind the fact that, as you can see in the audio-diaries, Rosalind Lutece _clearly_ refers to Robert as ‘brother’. In fact, I’m having trouble recalling a time at which she refers to him by his given name _instead_ of ‘brother’. I don’t think she ever has, come to think of it.  
  
One could make the argument that maybe they started off calling each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ as a joke and then things became romantic; it’s a fair point. But Rosalind _chooses_ to call Robert her brother, and continues to do so over nearly _twenty years_ together (remember, Robert came over in 1893); and when Robert came to Rapture, Rosalind CHOSE to portray him as her brother rather than a friend or a fiancée or a spouse. When justifying why she’s going along with Robert’s desire to undo the damage they’ve done, she says it’s because _he’s her brother._  
  
I mean, maybe it’s just me, but I would think that at some point she might be more comfortable just calling him _Robert_ if she’s starting to get a sexual or romantic itch for him.  
  
Overall, what I’m trying to say is that it’s a little odd that they’re _not_ actually siblings but they keep _calling_ each other ‘brother/sister’ even though they’re theoretically romantically involved. I mean, especially given that some of the most important recordings from Rosalind come AFTER her and Robert’s death- she doesn’t _need_ to call him brother for the sake of appearances anymore, if what they have is actually romantic. But she does anyway.  
  
( ~~and yes you heathens I completely accept the possibility that she’s got a _kink_~~.)  
  
And you do have the simple fact that while there are movies/games/books/whatever that have unabashedly gone the incest-route, that doesn’t necessarily mean that BioShock was willing to follow in their footsteps.

* * *

So, that’s the length and width of the evidence I have at my disposal.  
  
As for whether or not Rosalind and Robert are involved in some sort of pseudo-incestuous union… I mean, fuck if I know, man. I can’t tell either way because the evidence is genuinely compelling in either direction: There is indeed a possibility that the developers are hinting at a relationship and, perhaps, keeping it on the down-low so as not to tip off the Moral Guardians (who you’d think would have better things to complain about) or perhaps just tease the fans with a hair-ripping question of ‘damn it ARE THEY OR AREN’T THEY?’  
  
But then, it’s also entirely possible that they’re trolling us, teasing at something like that without actually intending to go the way of pseudo-incest; or it could simply be a matter of interrogating the text from a particular perspective (and yes, I absolutely worked in that Anne Rice quote here). In all seriousness, though, it is entirely possible that Robert and Rosalind’s relationship is that of an intimate brother-sister… Self-self kind of familial love without a romantic or sexual aspect.  
  
Either way, I can’t tell, because the BioShock developers- and I tip my hat to you, you infuriating bastards- have made the details just vague enough that you can’t get a clear read on them either way.  
  
May the God of Video Games be benevolent and grant us… Shit, I don’t know, a sequel, a DLC, an appearance for the twins in the next game, whatever- but just give us some more _answers_ , damn it.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a fill for the trope-bingo community, and I don't want to cram this in with the rest at the beginning: The prompt I'm filling is "poor communication skills", and my basic justification for invoking the trope is that the developers have done- not a POOR job, that implies they've done badly- but they've been very ambiguous and unclear about the nature of Rosalind and Robert's relationship, which leads to confusion and misunderstanding (and a gREAT DEAL OF FEELINGS) on the part of the fans.


End file.
